suggestions for short trip from chicago

[FAMILYGAL]

Trying to plan a 4 day weekend as a vacation in early august.
Would like suggestions for trips that are roughly a 4 hour drive or less from Suburbs of Chicago.

Thanks

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

Almost that exact same question came up once before. Other than the suggested destination in West Virginia, I believe that all of the spots listed in this thread are within 4 hours or so of Chicago.

Enjoy

AZBuck

[Midwest Michael]

The thread Buck referenced has some excellent ideas.

If museums are of interest, I'll highly recommend both the Lincoln Library in Springfield or the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, IA.

What sorts of things are you interested in? I can probably find several other ideas if you can narrow things down a bit.

[etoiles]

Another idea for a short road trip from Chicago is to go to the Madison, WI area or a little bit west of Madison. In Madison some of the best things to see are the WI state capitol building and Ella's Deli.

West of Madison are the Cave of the Mounds, Bluemound State Park (the highest point in southern WI), the city of Mount Horeb (cute, quirky shops and a fun stop in the mustard museum), a little south of this is the Scandanavian area which has a well known Little Sweden & Little Norway towns with related attractions.

http://www.travelwisconsin.com/place...nwisconsin.htm

When going to the bottom, click on the cities of Madison, New Glarus, & Mt. Horeb for more information!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Trying to plan a 4 day weekend as a vacation in early august.

This sounds like a 225 mile radius, (more or less) if so, there are lots of cool places to discover in Iowa. Did you ever see the movie, "Field of Dreams"? The original set is still a ballfield in a corn field just outside of Dryersville, Iowa and the family lets anyone who wants to, come and play catch or engage in a little baseball. Two other places, that are on my list would include the famous(?) swinging bridge in Columbus Junction and in a similar vein, one day I want to see those weird animatrons doing their thing in that giant Klokkenspel in downtown Pella.

You timing might be perfect for an event I have always wanted to go to. The National Balloon Musuem in Indianola, (near Des Moines) hosts the National Balloon Classic and although it is a bit farther than the four hours -- it might be a hoot to see. About an hour closer, is the home of Sprint Cars racing -- do you like LOUD noise? Saturday night sprint car races in Knoxville is an amazing spectacle. About the same distance away, (but toward the north) is a place for quieter reflection -- I have visited the graves of famous dogs, but never seen a grave for a mule -- but it is my understanding that you can visit the grave of Becky the Mule in Oskloosa.

So, maybe a weekend of wandering about Iowa sounds intriuging?

Mark